NW 5&6 NIC card setup

[wardog25]

This may take a little explaining, but I could use the help so please bear with me.

I'm trying to change my servers to use just 1 NIC card (they are dual-homed at the moment) and am running into some issues.

Right now 1 NIC runs to the main network on each server and the second NIC runs to a slow backbone which is how the servers see each other. Each server has an IP address on the backbone, but only uses IPX on the main network NIC.

What I'm doing is unplugging the backbone, and plugging every server into a switch, which will also attach to all my hubs.

So my question is this, how come when I do this, the servers can't see each other? I've plugged the IPX NIC into the switch and I thought since those were already set up for IPX, the network would see them the same way it did before. But that isn't the case. The three Netware 5 servers seems to see each other, but not much else. They don't see the Netware 6 server, but most of the users see the NW 6 server fine.

So what's the deal? Do they need to be set up differently as far as the NIC cards go? Would I be better off giving them all an IP address? I'm not even exactly sure how to do that.

Is there another place besides the autoexec.ncf file where NICs get their information? The reason I ask is because right now the NW6 server has setup information for both NICs in the autoexec.ncf file. The NW5 servers have the same info, but it is commented out (I inherited this network if you are curious). So where are they getting their protocol and IP info from?

What is the best way to set the servers up when re-working the network layout like this?

 

[wardog25]

one side note, not all the workstations have the Novell client on them at the moment, so I would actually like to get the servers working with IPX first before IP.

 

[Lou0686]

Hi Wardog,

Check in Inetcfg, just load inetcfg at the server console. You will need to reconfigure through that utility.

Lou

 

[marvhuffaker]

I wouldn't try doing it all at once. Do it one at a time and troubleshoot as necessary.

It's easy enough to have IPX and IP bound to the same NIC. In fact, it's rare to see a setup like what you just explained with 1 NIC for IPX and 1 for IP.

Like Lou said, use INETCFG and then go to Bindings.. You should see a list of current bindings, and you can add additional ones if necessary.

Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[wardog25]

It appears that each NIC does have both IPX and IP bound. But the Netware 5 and netware 6 servers seem to vary a whole lot in INETCFG.

The netware 5 ones have 2 boards listed, each with 3 bindings. 2 IPX and 1 IP. 2 IPX being for both 802.2 and 802.3. Now that seems pretty straight-forward to me. The netware 6 servers however, are not so straight forward.

They have 6 boards listed under the configured boards option. All have different names, but 3 say they are in slot 6, and the other 3 boards say they are in slot 10005. There are still 6 bindings, though, so basically it looks as though a different board was created for each protocol binding. So is that setup wrong or does NW 6 just do things differently than NW5?

 

[Lou0686]

Hi,

Each board should have one name. I would assume it was done incorrectly. I would recreate them. But before doing so, write down the info so that you can refer back to it.

Lou

 

[marvhuffaker]

I've seen NetWare configure 2 or even 3 different board names for the same NIC before. One for each binding type. In fact, it seems like it does it that way in NetWare 6.x but I can't remember specific details. When I saw it, it tripped me out and I deleted the duplicates and bound everything to the same board name.

Seriously, you need to start with one server, and even one protocol. Troubleshoot it and get it working. STart with IP. Can you ping it from a workstation. Can you ping it from another server. Can you ping out from the server. Can you ping the router from the server. Get that working and then you can deal with IPX, if you even need it.

The correct way for IP to be bound is this.. One IP binding to One Network Card. Anything else is too complicated and most likely not necessary. I think whatever your setup currently is doing, it's haveing problems figuring out how it's supposed to be talking to the other servers. Almost sounds as if you may have introduced a loop in your routing that it can't figure out.

If you could post the following file from one of your servers, we might be able to see exactly what's going on.. Although the solution will still be same as above. The file you need is: SYS:ETC\NETINFO.CFG

Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[wardog25]

Here's the file for the Netware 6 server. Anyone know why someone would set it up like that with 2 IP addresses? Because as I said before, our main subnet sees it through IPX, not IP. And that subnet does not begin with 192.168 so I would have though it only needed one IP address for the backbone subnet.

#!VERSION=2.3
#!
#! --- WARNING -- WARNING -- WARNING -- WARNING -- WARNING -- WARNING ----
#! This file was created by the Internetworking Configuration Console.
#! It is intended to be modified ONLY by the configurator (INETCFG.NLM).
#! Tampering with this file may cause severe malfunctioning of the system.
#! The configurator will check for tampering and abort if it is detected.
#! -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#!
#!SERVERTYPE=NORMAL
#!
#!UIMODE=NONE
#!
#!BEGINGENLOAD
LOAD SNMP
LOAD BCALLSRV
#!END
#!
#!BEGINTSMLOAD
#!END
#!
#!BEGINBOARD DRVR=3C90XC NAME=3C90XC_1 STATUS=ENABLED NUMPORTS=1 DRVRTYPE=LAN VARIABLEPORTS=NO PORTPARAM=CHANNEL SLOT=6
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINPORT NAME=3C90XC_1 NUMBER=1 STATUS=ENABLED FRAMES=YES NUMLINKS=1 MEDIA=EtherTsm WANFRAME=UNCONFIGURED
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!REFCOUNT=1
LOAD 3C90XC NAME=3C90XC_1_E83 FRAME=ETHERNET_802.3 SLOT=6
#!END
#!END
#!
#!BEGINBOARD DRVR=3C90XC NAME=3C90XC_2 STATUS=ENABLED NUMPORTS=1 DRVRTYPE=LAN VARIABLEPORTS=NO PORTPARAM=CHANNEL SLOT=6
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINPORT NAME=3C90XC_2 NUMBER=1 STATUS=ENABLED FRAMES=YES NUMLINKS=1 MEDIA=EtherTsm WANFRAME=UNCONFIGURED
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!REFCOUNT=1
LOAD 3C90XC NAME=3C90XC_2_E82 FRAME=ETHERNET_802.2 SLOT=6
#!END
#!END
#!
#!BEGINBOARD DRVR=N100 NAME=N100_1_E83 STATUS=ENABLED NUMPORTS=1 DRVRTYPE=LAN VARIABLEPORTS=NO PORTPARAM=CHANNEL SLOT=10005
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINPORT NAME=N100_1_E83 NUMBER=1 STATUS=ENABLED FRAMES=YES NUMLINKS=1 MEDIA=EtherTsm WANFRAME=UNCONFIGURED
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!REFCOUNT=1
LOAD N100 NAME=N100_1_E83_E83 FRAME=ETHERNET_802.3 SLOT=10005
#!END
#!END
#!
#!BEGINBOARD DRVR=N100 NAME=N100_1_E82 STATUS=ENABLED NUMPORTS=1 DRVRTYPE=LAN VARIABLEPORTS=NO PORTPARAM=CHANNEL SLOT=10005
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINPORT NAME=N100_1_E82 NUMBER=1 STATUS=ENABLED FRAMES=YES NUMLINKS=1 MEDIA=EtherTsm WANFRAME=UNCONFIGURED
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!REFCOUNT=1
LOAD N100 NAME=N100_1_E82_E82 FRAME=ETHERNET_802.2 SLOT=10005
#!END
#!END
#!
#!BEGINBOARD DRVR=3C90XC NAME=3C90XC_3 STATUS=ENABLED NUMPORTS=1 DRVRTYPE=LAN VARIABLEPORTS=NO PORTPARAM=CHANNEL SLOT=6
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINPORT NAME=3C90XC_3 NUMBER=1 STATUS=ENABLED FRAMES=YES NUMLINKS=1 MEDIA=EtherTsm WANFRAME=UNCONFIGURED
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!REFCOUNT=1
LOAD 3C90XC NAME=3C90XC_3_EII FRAME=ETHERNET_II SLOT=6
#!END
#!END
#!
#!BEGINBOARD DRVR=N100 NAME=N100_1_EII STATUS=ENABLED NUMPORTS=1 DRVRTYPE=LAN VARIABLEPORTS=NO PORTPARAM=CHANNEL SLOT=10005
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINPORT NAME=N100_1_EII NUMBER=1 STATUS=ENABLED FRAMES=YES NUMLINKS=1 MEDIA=EtherTsm WANFRAME=UNCONFIGURED
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!REFCOUNT=1
LOAD N100 NAME=N100_1_EII_EII FRAME=ETHERNET_II SLOT=10005
#!END
#!END
#!
#!BEGINPROTO PROTO=TCPIP STATUS=ENABLED
LOAD TCPIP
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINBIND STATUS=ENABLED
BIND IP N100_1_EII_EII MASK=255.255.255.0 GATE=192.168.1.1 ADDRESS=192.168.1.5
#192.168.1.5
#!END
#!BEGINBIND STATUS=ENABLED
BIND IP 3C90XC_3_EII MASK=255.255.255.0 GATE=192.168.1.1 ADDRESS=192.168.5.1
#192.168.5.1
#!END
#!END
#!
#!BEGINPROTO PROTO=IPX STATUS=ENABLED
LOAD IPXRTR
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
LOAD IPXRTRNM
#Transferred from AUTOEXEC.NCF
#!BEGINBIND STATUS=ENABLED
BIND IPX N100_1_E82_E82 NET=2001
#2001
#!END
#!BEGINBIND STATUS=ENABLED
BIND IPX N100_1_E83_E83 NET=2002
#2002
#!END
#!BEGINBIND STATUS=ENABLED
BIND IPX 3C90XC_2_E82 NET=1995
#1995
#!END
#!BEGINBIND STATUS=ENABLED
BIND IPX 3C90XC_1_E83 NET=2003
#2003
#!END
#!END